Eagles' Jackson a Legit Deep Threat

Throughout the Andy Reid/Donovan McNabb era in Philadelphia, the biggest complaint in Philadelphia is the lack of a game-breaker at the wide receiver position. With the exception of the 2004 season when the Eagles had volatile wideout Terrell Owen, the Eagles haven't had a game-breaking wide receiver. The Birds went to the Super Bowl that season with Owens as their starting receiver.

So far in the 2009 season all the noise about McNabb not having that big-time go-to receiver has been muted by the performance of players like second-year wide receiver DeSean Jackson, who has become one of the most dangerous weapons in the Birds offense.

Statistically, none of the Eagles receivers are in the top 10 among the NFL's best, but McNabb does have receivers who are capable of making that game-breaking play at anytime.

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Giants, Eagles Tangle for First Place

The question for the New York Giants (5-2) as they come into this week's NFC East showdown against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field is whether the offense and the defense are going to show up at the same stadium?

After the defense was shelled for 48 points by the New Orleans Saints the previous week, the offense couldn't get out of its own way in the Giants 24-17 loss to the Arizona Cardinals. The New York offense committed four turnovers—including three interceptions by quarterback Eli Manning.

Against the unbeaten Saints, the Giants defense gave up 493 yards of total offense while the offense piled up 325 yards of offense, but the Giants offense could only muster 84 yards on the ground with the tandom of Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw. But then again, the Saints put the Giants in such a big hole that the running game couldn't help the G-men.

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Cowboys' Miles Is Getting There

Maybe it's way too early to start breaking out the annointing oil for Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Miles Austin—who is beginning to emerge as Tony Romo's favorite go-to receiver.

He may not be on the same level as a Terrell Owens just yet, but the numbers that he's put up in the last two weeks for the Cowboys says a lot about his potential as that game-breaking receiver that the team was hoping to find in Roy Williams.

In the Cowboys 37-21 victory over the Atlanta Falcons last Sunday, Austin caught six passes for 171 yards and two touchdowns. The Falcons could do nothing to stop the speedy, 6-foot-3, 214-pound receiver out of Monmouth. Whether it was a comeback pattern or a crossing route, Austin had a penchant for turning big gains into big plays.

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Snyder Needs to Get Out of the Way

The removal of Redskins head coach Jim Zorn's playcalling duties and bringing in longtime NFL assistant Sherman Lewis as a consultant to call plays for the struggling Skins is the latest episode in the daily soap opera of an owner who runs the team like he's playing in the Yahoo fantasy football league.

While it's not news that the Redskins owner is woefully deficient in his football I.Q., you have to wonder why he didn't just go all the way and fire Zorn and get it over with rather than cutting off his gonads and allowing him to twist in the wind.

But as my significant other often tells me it's like bringing logic to a situation that steadfastedly resists it. The Redskins during Snyder's tenure have been a classic example of a bizzare situation trying to figure out which way is up, something they have yet to figure out.

After all, this is an ownership that brought you Steve Spurrier with former Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel leading the offense until they found out that Vanderbilt and Kentucky don't play in the NFC East.

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Romo, Defense Come Up Short for Dallas

You can't blame Terrell Owens for this one.

The Cowboys 33-31 loss to the New York Giants in what was a very winnable game came down to a couple of malingering problems from the last couple of seasons—Tony Romo's penchant for mistakes and having one of the worst secondaries in football.

For starters, I don't want hear from any Cowboys fans who say Romo is a better quarterback without the melodramatics of Owens. All three of Romo's interceptions against the Giants led to 24 points. What should really bother Cowboys fans about Romo's miscues was that it wasn't like the Giants were bringing a whole lot of pressure on the quarterback.

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Redskins Going Nowhere Fast

If you witnessed the Washington Redskins 9-7 victory over the hapless St. Louis Rams squad at Fed Ex. Field in Landover, Md., you would have probably would have thought you were in South Philadelphia with all the booing that went on along the Beltway this past Sunday.

Even though fans are no doubt happy about seeing their Skins get their first win of the season, they are frustrated with an offense that rolled up 362 yards offense, but only managed to come away with just three field goals.

While it's never good discount any victory in the National Football League, I think Redskins fans are looking down the road when they have to run across teams the high-powered offenses in their own division like the Giants, Cowboys and Eagles—that have all put more than 20 points on the board so far this season. The team has not scored 30 points during head coach Jim Zorn's tenure in Washington.

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Eagles Look to Rebound after Loss

PHILADELPHIA—The one thing that Eagles fans learned Sunday in their 48-22 loss to the high-powered New Orleans Saints is that their team has a long way to go before it can really consider itself among the elite teams in the NFC.

“It wasn't right today in any phase of it,” said Eagles head coach Andy Reid. “It was an absolutely horrendous performance.”

Granted, the Birds were without injured starting quarterback Donovan McNabb, but even with his presence would not have been enough to stop a juggernaut of a Saints offense that simply had its way with the Eagles defense, who gave up the most points at home since 1962.

On a day where the Birds were starting second-string quarterback Kevin Kolb, the Birds needed to play well on all sides of the football. In the first half, the Eagles offense managed to keep up with Drew Brees and company and trailed by four points at the intermission.

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No T.O.? No Problem for Cowboys

All the questions about how the Cowboys passing game would fare without Terrell Owens were answered, at least for one week, by their receiving corps in Sunday's 34-21 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Quarterback Tony Romo passed for a career-high 353 yards and three touchdowns while completing 16 of his 27 passes. He completed passes to six different receivers Three of his touchdown passes went for more than 40 yards.

"They are playmakers, and we knew that going in," Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips said. "But until you do it, the naysayers are going to say: 'Hey. You don't have this or that.' But I think we do."

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Eagles Plagued by Doubts

After being a listed as an odds-on favorite to win the NFC East based on their free agent acquisitions and the draft, the clouds of doubt are starting to gather around the City of Brotherly Love.

And those who picked the Birds are now having second thoughts.

Perhaps the biggest concern is their patchwork offensive line. Guard Todd Herremans is out with a foot injury and Shawn Andrews, who didn't play at all during the pre-season, is still nursing that bad back that kept him out of last season.

So that means a pair relatively inexperienced lineman—Winston Justice (right tackle) and Nick Cole (left guard) will open the season on the road against the Carolina Panthers, who have an All-Pro defensive end named Julius Peppers.

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Super Bowl or Bust for McNabb

PHILADELPHIA—Shortly after the Eagles lost to the Arizona Cardinals in last year's NFC Championship Game, the radio sports talk shows in this town were full of fans and media pundits wanting to run quarterback Donovan McNabb out of town on a rail.

To McNabb's detractors, it was another case of him choking in an NFC title game. After all, McNabb is 1-4 in conference championship games. Never mind that McNabb had brought the Birds back from a 24-6 halftime deficit to a 25-24 lead with under 10 minutes left in the game or that the Eagles defense allowed the Cardinals to march down the field to score the go-ahead touchdown while chewing up the clock, it was all McNabb's fault.

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NFC East on Road to Super Bowl

To say that anybody can win the NFC East is a gross understatement. In the last three years, at least two teams from the division made the playoffs. In the last two years, a representative from the NFC East has played for a conference championship. In 2009, the road to the Super Bowl will definitely come through the NFC East.

The hard part is trying to figure out which one. You can certainly make an argument for all four teams. It's not too hard to go out on a limb and say that three teams from the East will make the playoffs. All four teams have upgraded their talent and are capable of winning it.

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